Many plant support structures in prior art are constructed with vertical support poles or rods (usually to be driven into the ground) that are permanently attached to the other parts of the plant support. Examples of these are: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,005,548 to Nahon (1977) and 4,026,068 to Tepper (1977). In other types of prior art plant supports, the vertical support poles can be separated from the rest of the plant support but there are permanent places on the vertical support pole for attachment of other parts of the plant support. When assembled the relation between the vertical support poles and the rest of the plant structure is fixed. Examples of these plant supports are: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,667,438 to Corell (1987) and 5,179,799 to Hillestad (1993). Finally some plant support structures allow for adjustment of only some of the support structure as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,857 to Dodgen (1990). In all cases the vertical support poles are all driven into the ground the same distance. Thus some vertical support poles cannot be driven into the ground further than others to provide additional support. Additional support may be necessary when some of the vertical support poles hit rocks, roots, hard ground or the like. Additionally if the ground slopes, the vertical support poles on the upper side should be driven in the ground further for added support to keep the plant and its support cage from tipping over when the plant such as a tomato becomes large.
Prior an plant supports also have fixed support areas. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,799 to Hillestad (1993) each ting has a fixed area forming a fixed cage, and cannot be changed either at the start of the growing season for different varieties of plants or during the growing season to accommodate unusual plant growth. Thus the plant supports cannot adjust for different types of growth habitats expected from, for example, different varieties of tomato plants, nor can the plant supports be adjusted to a larger or smaller area during the growing season.
Most of the plant supports in prior art offer only support and are not designed to also provide protection from animals such as woodchucks or squirrels that can attack the plants as well as the fruit of the plants. Designs offering protection from animals would specify the spacing of the support structure.
Many of the prior art plant supports are not collapsible. Those that are, collapse in only one way and, while reducing the volume, still result in a storage area that is large. For example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,636 to Stuckey (1985) the tings that are detachable from the vertical support structure still have the large area of the detached rings. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,793,771 to Slaughter (1974) and 4,073,091 to Vogel (1978) the collapsible rectangular cage folds resulting in an area equal to one side of the cage. Even though these designs reduce the volume, the resulting large area is still cumbersome for storage, shipping and cleaning.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,651,502 to Carvelo et al. (1953) specifies a sectional low wire fence in which each section must be assembled to the previous section with a vertical support pole. The poles can be driven into the ground only to a fixed depth with respect to the fence, and the poles can only be placed at the pivot location. Furthermore the fence cannot be extended in height. U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,033 to Ringer (1980) shows a compost enclose where plants are placed around the outside, and there are no vertical support rods, and thus this invention offers no protection of plants from predators. The perimeter of this invention is fixed and also cannot be extened in height.